INTRODUCTION xvii 



Tree Names 



Two Latin words, written in italics, with a cabalistic 

 abbreviation set after them, are a stumbling block on the 

 page to the reader unaccustomed to scientific lore. He re- 

 sents botanical names, and demands to know the tree's 

 name in "plain English." Trees have both common and 

 scientific names, and each has its use. Common names 

 were applied to important trees by people, the world over, 

 before science was born. Many trees were never noticed 

 by anybody until botanists discovered and named them. 

 They may never get common names at all. 



A name is a description reduced to its lowest terms. It 

 consists usually of a surname and a descriptive adjective: 

 Mary Jones, white oak, Quercus alba. Take the oaks, for 

 example, and let us consider how they got their names, 

 common and scientific. All acorn-bearing trees are oaks. 

 Thej^ are found in Europe, Asia, and America. Their use- 

 fulness and beauty have impressed people The Britons 

 called them by a word which in our modern speech is oak, 

 and as they came to know the different kinds, they added a 

 descriptive word to the name of each. But "plain 

 English" is not useful to the Frenchman. Chene is his 

 name for the acorn trees. The German has his Eiclien' 

 baum, the Roman had his Quercus, and who knows what 

 the Chinaman and the H ndoo in far Cathay or the Ameri- 

 can Indian called these trees .'^ Common names made the 

 trouble when the Tower of Babel was building. 



Latin has always been the universal language of scholars. 

 It is dead, so that it can be depended upon to remain un- 

 changed in its vocabulary and in its forms and usages. 

 Scientific names are exact, and remain unchanged, though 



